GameStop Hires Amazon.com Executive as Chief Growth Officer

GameStop Corp announced on Tuesday it has hired Amazon.com Inc executive Elliott Wilke as the new chief growth officer. This is the firm’s latest top-level appointment after shareholder Ryan Cohen took charge of its e-commerce pivot.

In pre-market trading, the company’s shares rose nearly 5%.  Early this year, shares were at the heart of a Reddit-driven retail trading frenzy. 

GameStop is in the process of shifting its business into e-commerce to compete with large-scale retailers. From a brick-and-mortar retailer model, it aims to become competitive with the likes of Target Corp and Walmart Inc, as well as technology companies Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp.

At least two executives, Chief Customer Officer Frank Hamlin and Chief Financial Officer Jim Bell have recently gone.

Wilke will oversee growth strategies and marketing at GameStop. He has spent nearly seven years at Amazon and led its Fresh Stores business.

Earlier this month, Gamestop hired another former Amazon executive, Jenna Owens, as Chief Operating Officer. Owens had managed multi-channel fulfilment and distribution at Amazon.

Last month, Matt Francis became its first-ever Chief Technology Officer. Francis was also an Amazon head of the engineering team at Amazon Web Services.

The expected retirement of Eight directors was announced at its annual meeting this year.

GameStop had announced, earlier this month, the formation of a three-member committee chaired by Ryan Cohen. The committee is in charge of the moves leading to a re-jigging of the company’s leadership.

On Tuesday, GameStop also named former Chewy.com executives Andrea Wolfe to lead brand development, and Tom Peterson to lead merchandising. 

Spike in Yields Pressures Tech Stocks

Meanwhile, the main indexes of Wall Street opened lower on Tuesday. A rise in U.S. bond yields hit large technology stocks. 

The U.S. health authorities’ cautionary messaging kept a temporary chill on reopening trades. 

Edging higher in the session were undervalued banks and industrial stocks that stand to benefit from a reopening economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 43.5 points, or 0.13%, at the open to 33127.88. The S&P 500 dropped 7.7 points, or 0.20%, at the open to 3963.34. Moreover, Nasdaq Composite fell 50.8 points, or 0.39%, to 13008.804 at the opening bell.

Vipshop stock was up7.6%, while GSX Techedu stock rose 3.6%. Moreover, Discovery A-shares added 3.8% and ViacomCBS Inc stock eked out gains of 1.5%.